Rituals and Sacrifice among Chaggas

FOR ANCESTORS AND GOD: RITUALS OF SACRIFICE AMONG THE CHAGGA OF TANZANIAby Päivi HasuAbstract

This article discusses the rituals of sacrifice among the patrilineal Chagga people of northern Tanzania in terms of the historical context of double burial and related sacrifices. Despite more than a hundred years of Christianity in the area, ancestor veneration and sacrifices remain important elements in the rituals of kin groups, as when the relatively well educated, migrant Chagga return home at Christmas to commemorate their ancestors. The analysis draws from the classic studies of sacrifice as a gift, a communion, and an effective representation by focusing on sacrificial substances, participants, and spatio-temporal movement. It examines ritual cuisine, sequences of substances and their processing in the course of reconstituting the social community, and transforming the dead into ancestors. Rituals of sacrifice are part of a larger set of rituals that place both the living and the dead in ancestral lands.

Read more: An International Journal of Cultural and Social Anthropology, Vol 48, No 3 (2009)

FOR ANCESTORS AND GOD: RITUALS OF SACRIFICE AMONG THE CHAGGA OF TANZANIAby Päivi HasuAbstract

This article discusses the rituals of sacrifice among the patrilineal Chagga people of northern Tanzania in terms of the historical context of double burial and related sacrifices. Despite more than a hundred years of Christianity in the area, ancestor veneration and sacrifices remain important elements in the rituals of kin groups, as when the relatively well educated, migrant Chagga return home at Christmas to commemorate their ancestors. The analysis draws from the classic studies of sacrifice as a gift, a communion, and an effective representation by focusing on sacrificial substances, participants, and spatio-temporal movement. It examines ritual cuisine, sequences of substances and their processing in the course of reconstituting the social community, and transforming the dead into ancestors. Rituals of sacrifice are part of a larger set of rituals that place both the living and the dead in ancestral lands.

Read more: An International Journal of Cultural and Social Anthropology, Vol 48, No 3 (2009)

FOR ANCESTORS AND GOD: RITUALS OF SACRIFICE AMONG THE CHAGGA OF TANZANIAby Päivi HasuAbstract

This article discusses the rituals of sacrifice among the patrilineal Chagga people of northern Tanzania in terms of the historical context of double burial and related sacrifices. Despite more than a hundred years of Christianity in the area, ancestor veneration and sacrifices remain important elements in the rituals of kin groups, as when the relatively well educated, migrant Chagga return home at Christmas to commemorate their ancestors. The analysis draws from the classic studies of sacrifice as a gift, a communion, and an effective representation by focusing on sacrificial substances, participants, and spatio-temporal movement. It examines ritual cuisine, sequences of substances and their processing in the course of reconstituting the social community, and transforming the dead into ancestors. Rituals of sacrifice are part of a larger set of rituals that place both the living and the dead in ancestral lands.

Read more: An International Journal of Cultural and Social Anthropology, Vol 48, No 3 (2009)

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mimi ni mchaga tena original toka nimezaliwa sijawahi ona this kind of thing and every x-mas and easter im home, this was long time ago, mainly we go home to great families na kupeleka hata sukari kwa wazee na ndugu wasiojiweza na kuangalia kama nyumba tunazotuma hela zijengwe zimejengwa but not to sacrifice. and even if there is such a thing its a small percent of the whole tribe